This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Street thug now team star

The World Cup of Rugby starts this weekend. Canada opens its tournament Sunday against Wales and expectations are higher than in past years. Canada has not advanced past the first round of the World Cup since 1991.

By Matthew ChungSports Reporter

Thu., Sept. 6, 2007

As a collection agent working for drug dealers during his trouble-filled youth in Squamish, B.C., Jamie Cudmore would strike fear into drug users who'd fallen behind in their payments.

These days, the 28-year-old lock is striking fear into opponents as a member of Canada's national rugby team.

Cudmore is one of 13 Europe-based players leading the 30-man squad's charge for the World Cup, which begins tomorrow.

Canada opens its tournament Sunday against Wales and given its experience – many play in France's top two divisions – expectations are higher than in past years. Canada has not advanced past the first round of the World Cup since 1991.

Cudmore says this team has greater depth than previously. The Canadians will need every bit of that depth in a group where they'll also be facing Australia, Japan and Fiji.

Article Continued Below

With a goal of winning three of four first-round matches and world-beater Australia waiting for them in the last first-round fixture, the Canadians are zeroing in on a Wales squad Cudmore said hasn't been playing its best. Wales, ranked eighth in the world, will be favoured over Canada, ranked 13th.

"Wales being our first game, that's the game where all the marbles are going to be on the table," said Cudmore, counting on some local support given the France-based pros on Canada's roster.

"I think a lot of people will get behind us in our games," Cudmore said. "At my club, there's 50,000 people out to every game and that's not counting all the people that watch at home. When they're not supporting France they'll definitely be supporting me with Canada."

Cudmore is coming into his second World Cup on a high after winning the European Challenge Cup with French club ASM Clermont Auvergne.

Nine years ago, however, when his rugby career was just starting, run-ins with the law threatened to drag Cudmore down.

"When things could've gone really bad, rugby caught my interest and I really stuck with it," Cudmore said. "The sport brought me, maybe off the streets where we'd be fighting, into putting in a good effort in the rugby field where you're kind of rewarded for that rough behaviour instead of in trouble with the law."

Coming of age in Squamish, Cudmore says he got caught up in the drug and biker scene. Because of his size – he's currently listed at 6-foot-6 and 256 pounds – he would collect drug money for dealers.

His troubles began to mount when he was found guilty of assault. He turned 18 while serving a year in a juvenile detention centre.

Out of prison, he was getting back into rugby, playing for a local club of "loggers, plumbers, dock workers." Trouble found him again.

With his family away, Cudmore held a house party on New Year's Eve, 1997.

Cudmore had left the house party when a neighbour, Bob McIntosh, came to investigate and was attacked and beaten to death by two young men.

"I just decided, especially after (the New Year's Eve incident), that Squamish was kind of closing in on me," Cudmore said.

"If I wanted to really get going with rugby I'd have to move to a bigger club and not kind of get sucked in to the same Friday, Saturday problems that I had been having."

Cudmore moved to West Vancouver where he played for the Capilano Rugby Football Club, and the game "became the biggest part of my life."

That led to a stint in New Zealand and by 2003, international duty at his first World Cup.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com